Deuterium depleted water (DDW), known as super light water, is a type of high-end drinkable water with a reduced deuterium concentration by using state-of-the-art deuterium isotope separation technology. Currently, deuterium depleted water has been widely used in Europe, Japan and other developed countries for cancer therapy, health care, beauty care, etc. Deuterium depleted water is also well-known as “cellular nutrition water” or “water of life”.
Nature water is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Hydrogen element has three stable isotopes which are respectively Protium (Hydrogen-1, 1H) having an atomic mass number of 1, Deuterium (D or 2H, also known as heavy hydrogen) having an atomic mass number of 2, and Tritium (3H) having an atomic mass number of 3. Deuterium typically has a concentration of about 150 ppm in the nature water. Water with a deuterium concentration of less than 150 ppm is considered as deuterium depleted water. Research shows water with high levels of deuterium has an adverse effect to the growth, development and reproduction of the living organisms. The drinking water with lower concentration of deuterium may provide many benefits to human health. The lower the deuterium concentration the water contains, the more beneficial effect on human health can be obtained.
One of the natural sources of deuterium depleted water is glacier water. It has a deuterium concentration of 135 ppm, which, however, is not significantly lower than the deuterium concentration (150 ppm) in ordinary water. In addition, glacier is generally far away from the living habitats of human. Obtaining glacier water is very expensive due to the high costs of glacier mining and transportation. Therefore glacier water has not been widely developed and used for mass production of deuterium depleted water.
Water rectification has been specifically recognized as one of the conventional methods for producing deuterium depleted water based on differences in boiling point of water and heavy water. However, because of the small differences in boiling point of water and heavy water, high energy consumption is required for producing deuterium depleted water. No mass production of deuterium depleted water is therefore provided by water rectification. Currently, only limited amount of deuterium depleted water can be obtained as a by-product from Oxygen 18 production process. It is desirable to provide systems and methods suitable for industrial-scale production of deuterium depleted water.
The disclosed system and method are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems in the art.